The Steel Guitar Forum

A steel guitar isn't sexy because you can't dance around making obscene gyrations while playing it.
A regular electric guitar, on the other hand, is a phallic symbol.

Think of the normal group. There's the singer, who may or may not be playing an instrument, but he's beating his feet to the rhythm, dancing around, makiing gestures, looking direct at the audience. The rest of the band are also tapping their feet and swinging in time with the music.

Then there's the pedal steel player, who sits motionless, usually at the back, most of the time looking down at his instrument as though he was sulking and miserable. He can't beat his feet because he's using them on the pedals. To the audience, he might as well be the recording engineer. Even the keyboard player can put on some sort of show, but not the steel guitarist. He's lumbered.

I think we're getting close to discussing a topic that b0b probably won't allow on here... that maybe woman don't possess the same ability to experience music in the way that many men do... that maybe music to women is more about the atmosphere and visual aspect than about the song itself.

Historically, the overwhelming majority of composers and songwriters have been men. Almost of all the music that is very popular with women has been written by men. Furthermore, much of the most deeply feminine music is composed by gay men.

PSG, while being deeply musical, lacks the visual appeal or aura of other instruments. Is it a coincidence that all but the most musically-inclined women find it uninteresting?

Joachim, you look like you stepped out of one of the great novel from the 19th Century. That's not a bad look.

Maybe it's because the picture is in black and white.
Thanks Daniel.

speaking of instruments with low sex appeal, my cousin doug plays the pipe organ. he claims to be one of the only non-gay pipe organists. i pretty much believe him due to his wife and daughters.

on the other hand, playing steel scored me alot of female companionship over the years.

Next time she says that you might ask her if she'd like to check out your bar.

"Why Chicks Don't Dig Pedal Steel Guitar"

Although, I personally believe that this header has an awful lot of merit... I have to fess up to an episode in the mid-80's where I played a minor character role (sorta)
It was in Farmington, New Mexico. I had just launched into a solo on ..??? (..whatever current song), when a local woman decided to pull her top up, and give em' a few shakes right in front of me.
The whole Dadgummed band was laughing hysterically, and I had no clue what was going on, until they finally caught their breath, and told me later.
I missed the whole show...And, that's what they were all laughing about.

My experience,during a delightfully misspent middle age,was that the gentle sex relates most positively to well-played steel.

I don't agree. I always was well received at the end of the night also. It's the man behind ther oars, not the oars.

chris ivey wrote:
on the other hand, playing steel scored me alot of female companionship over the years.

Chris, you have a great way of putting things. I think women not only look but also listen. Steel has broken the ice more often than we realize.

You are talking about the steel guitar, right? My experience is that gals really love it. Of course they have to be music lovers, but so many are on some level. Don't be unrealistic with your expectations. If you're middle aged, you're still not going to get the twenty somethings, but you should do just fine if you set your sites appropriately.

Joe

Joe Goldmark wrote: If you're middle aged, you're still not going to get the twenty somethings, but you should do just fine if you set your sites appropriately.

We all learned that lesson from Doug Beaumier a few years ago, right...?

I forget who it was but there was a wonderful story about a steel player being approached after the gig by a young and attractive female audience member....who said to him...
"I think its wonderful that handicapped people can be in bands too...."

One theory that I noticed that has not been mentioned, perhaps many women do not know what instrument they are even watching or listening to. When my wife and I began dating many years ago, on her first visit to my apartment she saw my steel set up in the corner and immediately inquired as to what it was. It may be that most assume that the guitar player is creating all of those pretty sounds and that we are playing some type of keyboard instrument (heard that one on numerous occasions).

If you think the steel guitar isn't attractive to women, try switching to the tuba. At least the steel guitar doesn't sound like a continuous fart.

And don't forget the Rackett...

...a mediæval wind instrument whose sound was so bad that its name itself has entered the language as meaning "a bad noise".

Whoa, dudes - it just dawned on me! Although I was just a little too old to catch on to "goth" culture, still, in high school we had a smattering of those... really really weird kids. Always wearing black, pale as vampires, surely writing bad poetry about death & (teeny-version) despair. They actually listened to the words of Black Sabbath songs and had an Ozzy quote for every occasion. And of course, nowadays the nihilism/goth/vampire thing is huge, they have their own music, movies, books, clothes, a whole set of rules for non-conformity.

So; instead of trying to make a rectangular box on legs look "cool" somehow with dual-color fronts and polished up little bits and pieces - I mean, come on -

BUILD IT INTO A COFFIN.

You come out on stage, flick back your cape, open the lid (you don't have time to look at the audience anyway), and then all these eerie moaning and crying noises come creeping out....

There'd be room in the lid to hang your sheet music, maybe an iPad or a little TV if it's that kind of gig. And you would get the really weird chicks with black fingernails & tongue studs, but at least they know they're weird. Assume the old Caddy hearse is de rigueur.

Shuckins, all I gotta do is play "Rocky Top", or some other hot number, and them chicks are standin' in line to get at me!




('Course, carryin' a pocket full of cracked wheat helps, too! )

Maybe they've been reading the Forum......

Donny's post reminded me of the time, years ago, when I could still get a few glances, and was playing on a package show at an auditorium in Waxhaw, NC. We were playing "Rocky Top" and I was just tearin' it up... there were a couple of really cute young gals sitting right in front of me pointing, and whispering to each other. As I wailed away, I could see their eyes getting wider and wider, but my tone was also quickly going south, and I turned around... and my amp was on fire.

Works every time.

Jim Cohen wrote:

Joe Goldmark wrote: If you're middle aged, you're still not going to get the twenty somethings, but you should do just fine if you set your sites appropriately.

We all learned that lesson from Doug Beaumier a few years ago, right...?

Jim, thanks for the memory! We all tend to lower the bar (no pun) as we age... but my bar will Never sink this low!

Maybe females are more mercenary today?

Females originally liked steel players because they were the most approachable and most gentlemanly members of the band, and the most responsible.

We all tend to lower the bar (no pun) as we age... but my bar will Never sink this low!

well, everything sinks, except your gums, which go up:)

I have always seen the steelguitar as a female instrument, with female sounds..... Could it be that?
JJ

Took me a little while to understand Doug Beumier's post. 'Sight' not 'Site' Joe!

David Mason wrote:...So; instead of trying to make a rectangular box on legs look "cool" somehow with dual-color fronts and polished up little bits and pieces - I mean, come on -
BUILD IT INTO A COFFIN.
You come out on stage, flick back your cape, open the lid (you don't have time to look at the audience anyway), and then all these eerie moaning and crying noises come creeping out.... ...[/i]

Screaming Lord Sutch did just that back in the 50s. The curtain would pull back to reveal a coffin, from which he would emerge dressed as a vampire.

I'm not sure I would want to associate with the sort of women who would find that sexually appealling, though.

Thanks Matt, you're rite !

Joe

Maybe it looks too much like an ironing board....